NATURAL PHILOSOPHY — SWANN 247 



and all the others wrong. In a sense, different theories are like 

 different languages for describing the same phenomena. The 

 English language may be more suitable — more powerful for the 

 purposes of the science of chemistry than the French language. It 

 may have a greater richness of word content; but to say that one is 

 right and the other wrong is to utter nonsense. 



And so, a quarter of a century after the prediction of the eminent 

 European philosopher to the effect that discovery was ended we 

 find ourselves in the most intensive period of scientific activity of 

 all time. We may well ask where we are headed. Shall we con- 

 tinue to discover new treasures, or, w^hen we have catalogued those 

 we have, shall we reach again one of those periods of stagnation? 

 If we do, and if there be any one who then feels that progress is 

 ended, that knowledge is complete and that science is dead, let him 

 think of how confidently he could have voiced that same thought in 

 the civilization of the Pharaohs. Let him think with what surety 

 he would have voiced it in the years which followed Newton. Let 

 him think how he would have voiced it — yes, perhaps how he did 

 voice it 30 years ago, and then let him take hope. For, the words 

 of the Bard of Avon are truthful yet ; " There is more in heaven and 

 earth than is dreamed of in " even twentieth-century philosophy, and 

 I he richness of nature's content will not be fathomed in our time. 



